".... Scores of thousands of mourners were expected to attend the funeral in Jerusalem on Wednesday of Rabbi MosheFeinstein, 91, the spiritual leader of Agudat Israel, who died in New York on Sunday. Britain ... waters/4 Libya, the statement con- tinued, "is the spearhead of international terrorism and the source of violence to its neig* hours..." The only way to deal or Auschwitz death camps. The Trieste public ... States to Israel in February to stand trial there. Demjanjuk was assigned to the San Sabba death camp, near a Buffalo lawyer, has arrived in Israel, claiming to have clear proof that Demjanjuk is not Ivan ... were deported to Trebltnka, Sobtbor in consulta- Israeli Bar with this was forcefully. A Trieste trial in 1976 proved being considered tion with the..."

"...threemiles to the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem last week, following thebier of Rabbi MosheFeinstein, the spiritural leader of Agudat Israel,whose body was flown to Israel after his death in New York ... our CorrespondentJerusalem Strictly Orthodox zealots in theMea Shearim district of Jerusalem have launched a poster campaign,demanding that Reform Jews should be buried in separate cemeteries ... . The campaign is led by the powerfulEda Haredit umbrella group, which opposed the burial in the Mount ofOlives cemetery of Rabbi Morton Berman, a well known Reform rabbiand writer from Chicago who settled ... CorrespondentJerusalem Miss Marianne Stucker, 24, a WestGerman tourist who was shot and seriously wounded by an unknownassailant in the..."

"...father and he was aware that his father had died in Brazil. American rabbi buried in Jerusalem JERUSALEM (UPI) American Rabbi MosheFeinstein, revered as one of the world's leading author- ities on Jewish ... SAO PAULO, Brazil (UPI) Police promised to lay Nazi "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele to rest for good today with "irrefutable and conclusive evidence" that bones found a year ago were those ... of the diabolical Auschwitz death camp doctor. Federal police spokesman Issamu Uyema said new evidence would be presented at a news conference to- day. He refused to reveal tha nature of the evidence. Forensic ... in Sao Paulo, but they complained they needed more medical and dental records to eliminate all remaining doubts. Mengele, known as the Angel of ..."

About HaRav Moshe Feinstein

Moshe Feinstein משה פיינשטיין‎; March 3, 1895 – March 23, 1986) was a Lithuanian Orthodox rabbi, scholar and posek (an authoritative adjudicator of questions related to Jewish law), who was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for Orthodox Jewry of North America. In the Orthodox world he is widely referred to simply as "Reb Moshe", and his halakhic rulings are widely quoted in contemporary rabbinic literature.

Feinstein was born, according to the Hebrew calendar, on the 7th day of Adar, 5655 (traditionally the date of birth of the Biblical Moshe) in Uzda, near Minsk, Belarus, then part of the Russian empire to his father Rabbi David Feinstein, rabbi of Uzdan. His father was a descendant of Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman, Rabbi of Kapolye, whose glosses on the Talmud have been published in the back of the Gemarah; and also the author of other Talmudic works.

He studied with his father and also in yeshivas located in Slutsk, Shklov and Amstislav, before being appointed rabbi of Lubań where he served for sixteen years. He married Shima Kustanovich in 1920 and had 4 children (Pesach Chaim, Fay Gittel, Shifra, and David) before leaving Europe.[1] Under increasing pressure from the Soviet regime, he moved with his family to New York City in 1936 where he lived for the rest of his life.

Settling on the Lower East Side, he became the rosh yeshiva of Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem. He later established a branch of the yeshiva in Staten Island, New York, now headed by his son Rabbi Reuven Feinstein. His son Rabbi Dovid Feinstein heads the Manhattan branch.

He was president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada and chaired the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America from the 1960s until his death. Rabbi Feinstein also took an active leadership role in Israel’s Chinuch Atzmai.

Feinstein was revered by many as the Gadol Hador (greatest Torah sage of the generation), including by Rabbis Yaakov Yisrael Kanievsky, Yonasan Steif, Elyah Lopian, Aharon Kotler, Yaakov Kamenetsky and Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, even though several of them were far older than he. Feinstein was also recognized by many as the preeminent Torah sage and Posek of his generation, and people from around the world called upon him to answer their most complicated Halachic questions. [edit]Notable decisions

Owing to his prominence as an adjudicator of Jewish law, Feinstein was asked the most difficult questions, in which he issued a number of innovative and controversial decisions. Soon after arriving in the United States, he established a reputation for handling business and labor disputes. For instance, he wrote about strikes, seniority, and fair competition.

Later, he served as the chief Halakhic authority for the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, which suited his growing involvement with Jewish medical ethics cases. In the medical arena, he fiercely opposed the early, unsuccessful heart transplants and, over time, it is unclear whether he shifted toward acceptance of brain death criteria; the last responsa, printed after he had died, suggests as much. On such matters, he often consulted with various scientific experts, including his son-in-law Rabbi Dr. Moshe Dovid Tendler who is a professor of biology and serves as a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University.

As a leader of American Orthodoxy, moreover, Feinstein issued opinions that clearly distanced his community from Conservative and Reform Judaism.[2] Nevertheless, he faced intense opposition within Orthodoxy on several controversial decisions, such as rulings on artificial insemination and eruv. In the case of his position not to prohibit cigarette smoking, other Orthodox rabbinic authorities disagreed. It should be noted that all his detractors while disagreeing with specific rulings still considered him to be a leading and venerated sage. The first volume of his Igrot Moshe, a voluminous collection of his halachic decisions, was published in 1959.

Cholov Yisroel Permitted reliance on U.S. government agency supervision in ensuring that milk was reliably kosher (YD I:47). This was a highly controversial ruling disputed by prominent peers of Feinstein.[8]

Cheating for the N.Y. Regents exams (HM II:30)

Classical music in religious settings (YD II:111)

Commemorating the Holocaust, Yom ha-Shoah (YD IV:57.11)

Conservative Judaism, including its clergy and schools (e.g., YD II:106–107)[9]

Feinstein died on the March 23, 1986 (13th of Adar II, 5746 on the Hebrew calendar). It has been pointed out that the 5746th verse in the Torah reads, "And it came to pass after Moshe had finished writing down the words of this Torah in a book to the very end." (Deuteronomy 31:24). This is taken by some as a fitting epitaph for him.

At the time he was regarded as Orthodoxy's foremost halkhic authority and Posek. His funeral in Israel was delayed by a day due to mechanical problems to the plane carrying his coffin, which had to return to New York. His funeral in Israel was said to be the largest among Jews since the Mishnaic era, with an estimated attendance of 300,000 people. Among the eulogizers in America were Rabbis Yaakov Yitzchak Ruderman, Dovid Lifshitz, Shraga Moshe Kalmanowitz, Nisson Alpert, Moshe David Tendler, Michel Barenbaum and Mordechai Tendler and the Satmar Rebbe. The son of the deceased, Rabbi Reuven also spoke.

Feinstein was held in such great esteem that Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, who was himself regarded as a Torah giant, Talmid Chacham and posek, refused to eulogize him, saying "Who am I to eulogize him? I studied his sefarim; I was his talmid (student)."

Feinstein was buried on Har HaMenuchot in proximity to his teacher, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer; his friend, Rabbi Aharon Kotler; his son-in-law Rabbi Moshe Shisgal and next to the Belzer Rebbe. [edit]Prominent students

Rabbi Feinstein invested much time molding some of his select students to become leaders in Rabbinics and Halacha. Those students, over the years, spent countless hours a day serving as apprentices to their great Rabbi. Most are considered authorities in many areas of practical Halacha and Rabbinic and Talmudic academics. Some of those students are:

Rabbi Nisson Alpert, (New York City)

Rabbi J. David Bleich, (New York City)

Rabbi Avrohom Blumenkrantz, (Far Rockaway, NY)

Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, (New York), his son

Rabbi Reuven Feinstein, (New York), his son

Rabbi Moshe Dovid Tendler, (New York, NY), his son-in-law

Rabbi Elimelech Bluth

Rabbi Chaim Ganzweig

Works

Rabbi Feinstein's greatest renown came from a lifetime of responding to halachic queries posed by Jews in America and worldwide. He authored approximately two thousand responsa on a wide range of issues affecting Jewish practice in the modern era. Some responsa can also be found in his Talmudic commentary (Dibros Moshe), some circulate informally, and 1,883 responsa were published in Igrot Moshe. Among Rabbi Feinstein's works:

Igros Moshe; (Epistles of Moshe), a classic work of Halachic responsa. Seven volumes were published during his lifetime; an eighth volume, edited posthumously by his granddaughter's husband Shabbetai Rappoport, and published by Rappoport, and Feinstein's grandson, Rabbi Mordecai Tendler, is not universally accepted as authoritative. A ninth volume was also published posthumously.

Dibros Moshe (Moshe's Words), an eleven-volume work of Talmudic novellae.

^ Rav Yaakov Breisch in Chelkas Yaakov Vol.2 ch.37 stated that "all of his rationales are not sufficient to contradict a clear ruling of the Shulchan Aruch and halachic authorities...." Later in ch.37 and 38, Breisch extensively debunks various premises underlying the rationale for Feinstein's lenient ruling. See also Shu"t Beer Moshe Vol.4, ch.52, Kinyan Torah 1:38 for a more detailed listing of the many authorities disputing Feinstein's reasoning and conclusion.

^ See Negiah, section entitled "Shaking Hands in Halacha," for a discussion regarding Rav Moshe's opinion on this topic, both with regard to initiating a handshake and with regard to returning a handshake (i.e. where the other party extends his/her hand first). For a translation of R' Moshe's three Teshuvos (responsa) on men shaking hands with women, see [2]

Warshofsky, Mark E. "Responsa and the Art of Writing: Three Examples from the Teshuvot of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein," in An American Rabbinate: A Festschrift for Walter Jacob Pittsburgh, Rodef Shalom Press, 2001 (Download in PDF format)

Links

Biography of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein

“HaRav Moshe Feinstein: In honor of his 15th yahrtzeit, 13th Adar” – A retrospective of Rav Moshe Feinstein’s life, with recollections on his character as a person.

Igros Moshe is available for free online at hebrewbooks.org. Type אגרות משה into the sefer box for pdfs of all eight volumes.